Spain enjoys a privileged location, which has made it an excellent logistics platform. Spanish ports are well aware of this, and have undertaken significant investments that have positioned them as highly competitive in the maritime transport market. In this report, Puertos del Estado (State Ports Authority) analyzes the current state of the Spanish Port System and the evolution of traffic.
Spain is the European Union country with the longest coastline (8.000 km), which, together with its geographical location close to the axis of important maritime routes, is producing its progressive consolidation as a strategic area in international maritime transport and as a logistics platform of Southern Europe.
Nearly 19 million people used Spanish port facilities for their travel in 2002, and 51% of our exports and 78% of our imports were carried out by sea, as well as 15% of the internal trade flow.
Furthermore, the direct, indirect, and induced activity of the Port System accounts for approximately 20% of the transport sector's GDP, representing 1,1% of the national GDP. It also generates over 35.000 direct jobs and around 110.000 indirect jobs.
The Spanish port model
The Spanish State-owned Port System is made up of 50 ports of general interest, managed by 27 Port Authorities, whose coordination and efficiency control corresponds to the State Ports Public Entity, an organ dependent on the Ministry of Public Works, which is responsible for the execution of the Government's port policy.
The Law provides the Spanish port system with the necessary instruments to improve its competitive position in an open and globalized market, establishing a system of management autonomy for the Port Authorities, which must carry out their activity with business criteria.
Within this framework, the management of ports of general interest is intended to follow the so-called "landlord" model, in which the Port Authority is limited to being a provider of port infrastructure and land, and to regulating the use of this public domain, while services are provided primarily by private operators under authorization or concession.
Furthermore, the function of ports goes beyond their traditional role as mere points of embarkation or disembarkation of goods and passengers, to become centers where a whole series of activities are located that generate added value to the goods, fully integrated into the logistics and intermodal chains.
Currently, a draft Law on the Economic Regime and Provision of Services in ports of general interest is being prepared, which will incorporate most of the contents of the recent Community Directive on the liberalization of access to the market for port services, which will modify some aspects of the current legislation in order to reinforce and consolidate all the positive aspects of the port model.
Evolution of traffic
The evolution of traffic, with growth rates exceeding GDP, reflects the strong competitive position of Spanish ports in the maritime transport market. The provisional figures for 2002 show an increase in port traffic of over 4%, with a total volume of approximately 364 million tons, distributed as follows: 130 million tons of liquid bulk, 125 million tons of general cargo, 97 million tons of solid bulk, and 11 million tons of other cargo. Container traffic also continues to grow at a rate exceeding that of other traffic (+6%), reaching 8 million TEUs.
Financial figures of the port system (Millions of Euros)
The situation and evolution of the state-owned port system is frankly positive, both in terms of economic results and its financial situation, as reflected in the figures in Table 1.
Port System Investments
It is important to highlight that the Spanish port system is legally governed by the principle of financial self-sufficiency, both for each of the Port Authorities and for the system as a whole, constituting one of the few cases that fully comply with the European Union's guidelines for financing transport systems and their infrastructure. Thus, ports of general interest do not receive any allocation from the General State Budget, covering all their current and investment expenses through the resources generated by their operations (cash flow), subsidies from European funds in certain cases, and, exceptionally, through external borrowing, which is kept at very low levels.
Expectations for traffic growth, the evolution of ports and their new needs as logistics hubs and intermodal platforms, as well as the demand for a high level of quality and safety in the provision of port services and better integration of port areas into the environment, require a set of actions that have become the focus of the Government's port policy.
The 2000-2007 Infrastructure Plan includes a public investment of over €4.730 billion, to which must be added a very significant and growing private investment. The figures for the period 2001-2005, regarding public investment, are as follows: 2001 (€529,5 million); 2002 (€712,8 million); 2003 (€760,9 million); 2004 (€715,8 million); 2005 (€639 million), totaling €3.368 billion.
Regarding private investment, the figures for 2001 (555,3), 2002 (798), 2003 (724,2), 2004 (450,5), and 2005 (353,3) totaled €2.881,3 million.
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